


Copy my sleep deprived heart

by Msgay



Category: Holby City
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, First Meetings, Meet-Cute, One Shot, Short One Shot, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 18:46:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18762250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Msgay/pseuds/Msgay
Summary: Serena regretted encouraging Jason to get a job at her local print shop. As she is keeping him company in a late shift a sleep deprived, fresh back in the UK, Bernie Wolfe enters the shop.Alternative Universe . First meeting.





	Copy my sleep deprived heart

**Author's Note:**

> Once more keep in mind I am not a native English speaker.  
> I recently started writing Berena fanfics and I'm afraid you'll get a lot of first meetings, at least for a while.

Serena half-heartedly regretted encouraging Jason to get a job at her local print shop. She loved that he loved it, but she worried about him working alone in the shop until midnight. She had the next day off so she offered to keep him company until closing time; she knew he wasn’t too happy about it but it reassured her. She was using the time to catch up with her reports, the print shop barely had any clients after nine pm.

 

Bernie hadn’t planned to stay awake this long. Normally she slept well in planes, practically falling asleep as soon as the plane took off. However, the couple behind her argued the entire flight; even after she asked them, politely, to tone it down. Then there was the matter of her missing luggage; that took a few hours out of her life. As a result she was now awake for over 48 hours.

She had arranged everything for her new rental online so she was pleasantly surprised to find it as the photos and description indicated. After walking around a bit, she noticed an envelope on her kitchen table; inside were copies of her contract, building rules, trash days, recycling details and what seemed to be an endless stream of paperwork. Lastly there was a note requesting copies of documents she had already provided plus a couple of new ones. Digital age, my arse! Bernie felt in her bones that if she went to bed now she would be dead to the world for perhaps two days, and after sleeping all her body needed she would not want to leave the flat and survive only on take away for another two days. So albeit tired she decided to do some grocery shopping and print and photocopy all the documents her landlord wanted. If she survived the Middle East’s bureaucracy surely she can survive the UK’s.

After getting some pizza and filing her kitchen cabinets she went out to look for a cybercafe or a print shop. She realised walking around dead tired at almost ten thirty at night looking for something wasn’t very productive. She walked around for about 20 min before coming up with the brilliant idea of googling where the closest shop was.

“ _Copy Copy Copy!”_ was a mere 3 min walk, good thing because Bernie’s energy was plummeting. Had Holby always had so many shops? Do shops need so many bright lights and do they have to blast their own horrible music?

By the time Bernie spotted the shop she was feeling worse than a zombie and could only think of her bed, her brand new queen-size, orthopaedic mattress…

‘Welcome to _Copy Copy Copy._ How can I help you?’ Smiling at Bernie was a vision. It had to be a sleep deprived induced vision, this woman was just too beautiful. And her smile was beaming.

This was Serena’s first time keeping Jason company in the shop until closing time, not babysitting as he had put it. All evening she struggled over saying the dreaded repeated words. As the gorgeous blonde walked in squinting as if she needed glasses, Serena was sure she was going to stutter. She took a deep breath and practiced in her head quickly before smiling; she hoped she didn’t smile too much – this woman made her smile like something inside her wanted to burst out. She was sure she got it wrong when the woman didn’t reply and just stared at her.

“Hm”

“Sorry! Sorry. I blanked there for a minute!” Bernie felt her face turn red, in fact it seems her entire body was on fire. “I need to print some documents from my email…” Was she sweating? Bernie never sweats… “And to copy some that I brought with me.”

“Well, here is our card, it has two email addresses where you can send your documents.” Serena hoped her surgeon hands didn’t betray her now.

“Right. Uh. Thanks” Bernie opened her email on her phone and searched for the emails she sent her landlord. She had trouble focusing from both her exhaustion and the nerves this attractive woman was lighting up inside her whole body; Bernie was certain her shirt was now perfectly glued to her back.

“Or if you have an Android, we can pair with it the tablet and print directly from there.”

Bernie blinked feeling a bit blind from the light this stunning woman was shinning on her. She shook her head.

“Sorry, I have been awake for almost two days and it’s making me slow. Sorry.” She smiled trying to reassure this woman she wasn’t an idiot. She cleared her throat.

“No wonder you can’t sleep, who can sleep while reading Van Way’s _History of Military Medicine_?”

Bernie freaked internally. “what.” Serena smiled again and pointed to Bernie’s possessions on the counter: her purse, a document folder and a copy of _War and Trauma: A History of Military Medicine_ by Charles Van Way, III. Bernie unleashed a wondrous honk that astonished both Jason and Serena but they both loved this idiosyncrasy immediately.

“You scared me there, I was half worried you could read my mind…”

“Oh? Something you don’t want me to read?” Serena’s flirty voice could bring back the dead, Bernie thought.

“Uh.”

“You have a peculiar laugh: half repressed and half wild. It suits your hair.” Jason spoke up startling both women. Bernie’s mouth opened slightly, and Serena was about to intervene when Bernie chuckled.

“Yep. That about sums it up.”

Serena looked fondly at Jason and Bernie and wondered if this heated knot in her stomach could be….

“Right. So. I sent you the first email with four attachments.”

“Sent from which email so I can check?”

“Uh.”

“Or what is your name?”

“Bernie. Bernie Wolfe.”

Serena felt her stomach flip in a way her medical degree would disagree.

“Not?... Berenice Wolfe?”

“OK. Now you’re really freaking me out…” Bernie said while glancing at the counter to see if her driver’s license was out.  Serena introduced herself and explained briefly she worked at Holby Hospital and heard Bernie would be joining Keller. “That, that means come Monday we’ll be colleagues.” Serena’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

“Yes.”

…

“Yes.”

They stared at each other as if reading correctly the plethora of possibilities ahead of them.

_Yes, their hearts were saying, yes._

“Auntie Serena you spent an average 13 minutes more with Bernie than with any other customer you saw tonight. Is Bernie special?”

They both blushed, glanced shyly from Jason to each other and smiled once more.

“Yes, Jason. I believe so.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little fic. The book is real, btw. I googled "history of trauma medicine" and got a few interesting titles. 
> 
> The majority of this dialogue happened to me when I needed documents for a new job when I had just arrived in a new country; instead of trauma medicine I had a psychiatry book and the gorgeous lady really freaked me out cause she read the title of the book and the dates of a conference.


End file.
